this is about melissa slamming woody and insisting that movies need to pass the 'bechdel test' - at least 2 females are in the movie whose characters have names, they have at least 1 conversation in the film, that conversation is about something other than a man.

why other than a man?

because a lesbian came up with the test.

if you're bi or straight and a woman, you know we spend a lot of time talking about men.

but whatever.

melissa wants you to follow that test.

here's the thing, melissa, woody's films generally pass that test.

melissa's 1 of those 'informed' writers who never actually does the research.

she slams 'blue jasmine' but it passes that test.

i believe most of woody's films do.

'small time crooks'? elaine may and tracey ullman have conversations. they have names. there are other women in the film with names as well but right there.

'hannah & her sisters'? barbara hershey is amazing, dianne weist is riveting and mia farrow ... well she's her usual wet blanket. but there are also women like carrie fisher in the cast. and julie kavner. and the women have conversations with each other. in fact, shocker!, there are scenes where barbara, dianne and mia all speak to each other - 3 women! exceeding that stupid test.

'manhattan murder mystery'? diane keaton and anjelica huston have scenes together - and they have scenes with joy behar.

'husbands & wives'? though judi davis wipes the floor with mia, their characters have scenes together.

same with 'purple rose of cairo,' 'broadway danny rose,' etc., etc.

do the work required before writing your stupid idiotic columns, melissa.

A San Diego-based Navy SEAL killed in action in Iraq last week was laid
to rest at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery Friday following an enormous
display of support from grateful members of the public.Petty Officer First Class Charles H. Keating IV, 31, was fatally shot in
a May 3 battle with Islamic State forces in Tall Usquf, Iraq. According
to the Navy, ISIS broke through the front lines north of the city of
Mosul, and Keating's SEAL team and air support were called in to repel
the attack.A funeral service was held at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Coronado,
after which a hearse carrying his body and a long procession of vehicles
wound their way through the city and across the San Diego-Coronado Bay
Bridge.

WATCH: 1000s line streets of Coronado, Calif., to honor US Navy SEAL CharlesKeating IV, who was killed last week.

WATCH: 1000s lined the streets of Coronado, Calif., to honor US Navy...

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Julie Watson (AP) adds:At a memorial ceremony attended by more than a thousand people in
Coronado on Thursday, Keating was posthumously awarded a Silver Star,
the nation's third-highest combat medal, for his heroic actions during a
battle against Islamic State fighters in Iraq, said Lt. Beth Teach, a
spokeswoman for the SEALs.He also received a Purple Heart and
Combat Action Ribbon for what he did the day he was killed. He was part
of a quick reaction force that moved in May 3 to rescue U.S. military
advisers caught in a gunbattle with more than 100 Islamic State
militants.

Memorial mass held today at @stpatsnyc for #USNavy SEAL Chief CharlesKeating IV killed in action in Iraq May 3.

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Keating died in combat. US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced
the death on May 3rd (later in the day, Keating's name would be
released) and he noted it was a combat death.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ASH CARTER: Okay. Once again, good morning. Everybody hear me? Well, we had a very meaningful, and
important and wonderful ceremony this morning. I won't repeat the main
themes of what we all said there, but as to remind you, as we stood --
or to tell you that as we stood there in from of those magnificent
service members, I'm getting some reports now that an American service
member has been killed in Iraq, in the neighborhood of Erbil.

And I -- again, these are preliminary
reports. I don't know much more than that, but I believe that much is
true. And so our thoughts and prayers are with that service member's
family.

As we're here in Stuttgart today and as we
learn more, we'll give you more information about that. But it shows
you, it's a serious fight that we have to wage in Iraq. There are
American service members involved and that's all I know at this time.
But I wanted you to know as soon as we begin getting those reports. And
with that, let me turn things over to Peter, and we'll answer your
questions.

[. . .]

STAFF: (inaudible) -- of The Wall Street Journal.

Q: (inaudible) -- from The Wall Street
Journal. I was just wondering -- two questions. One is on the death in
Iraq -- (inaudible).

SEC. CARTER: I can't at this time. It
does -- it is a combat death, of course. And very sad loss. I don't
know all the circumstances of it and as -- we'll give you more as we
learn more. I wanted to give you everything I knew. I really just
can't go any further than that.

The White House thinks they can lie and spin and pretend like it's not combat.

They think as long as they don't admit it was combat, they can get away with Barack Obama continuing the Iraq War.

In Friday's snapshot,
we noted US House Rep Seth Moulton appeared on CNN's THE LEAD WITH JAKE
TAPPER. CNN doesn't have a transcript for it -- though they've posted
transcripts -- and doesn't provide a link for the video.

Jake Tapper's link takes you to the CNN clip posted at SNAPPY TV. It's
an important interview. I have no idea why CNN wants to bury it.

Jake Tapper: Now there are more than 4,000 US personnel, US military
personnel, in Iraq right now but the White House argues this is not a
combat mission. Do you think that the Obama administration is
misleading the American public.US House Rep Seth Moulton: That's just simply not true, this
absolutely is a combat mission. In 2004, I had an advisory mission as a
Marine with my platoon in Iraq. We were advisors to an Iraqi unit and
when that unit started to get overrun, we went to their assistance and
started the battle of Najaf which was some of the fiercest fighting of
the war until that time. So there's a very fine line between an
advisory mission and full fledged combat. It's very clear from the death
of the Navy Seal just last week that this is absolutely a combat
mission.

It is a combat mission.

And if Americans are being asked to still risk their lives in Iraq
because the White House continues to send them into Iraq, it is past
time to ask what 'success' is and when Iraq's leader is going to stand
up and do his damn job.

In Iraq today, Haider al-Abadi, US-installed prime minister, gave a speech broadcast on state television. ALSUMARIA reports he expressed dismay over the ongoing political crisis and spoke of the plan (hope?) to liberate Mosul.

For those who have forgotten the Sunni terrorist group the Islamic State
seized control of Mosul in June of 2014. The two year anniversary
approaches.

Roughly half of Iraq’s American-trained security forces are stationed in
and around Baghdad to protect the country’s capital, where recent
political turmoil was followed this week by a wave of terrorist attacks,
a U.S. military spokesman said Friday.

Half the forces are protecting Baghdad?

There's your clue that Haider's government is not working.

Not to mention the fact that last month, with all that Baghdad
protection, Moqtada al-Sadr's zombies still managed to storm the Green
Zone and storm Parliament.

Haider al-Abadi is a failure.

Nouri al-Maliki, former prime minister and forever thug, used his second
term as prime minister (2010 through 2014) to harden divisions along
sectarian lines. The Shi'ite politician went after Sunnis. He
persecuted them.

They protested and did so for over a year and never got a fraction of
the world press' attention that Moqtada al-Sadr's zombies got for one
Saturday faux-test.

The world has turned its eye away from Iraq, yes. But worse was it turned its back on the Sunni suffering.

The Sunni people were persecuted. they were disappeared, they were taken
away from crimes that others were alleged to have committed (Shi'ite
forces show up to arrest a man and he's not there, they take a parent, a
wife, a child instead), the Sunni politicians had their homes circled
by tanks, at what point does the world pay attention?

And the west yawned, if they bothered to acknowledge the massacre at all.

How did a Sunni terrorist group like the Islamic State flow into Iraq and set up roots there?

Because you had a government that was persecuting and killing the Sunnis.

Sympathy was created.

They were able to present themselves as "defenders."

And they were able to seize that role because the world didn't care.

The White House didn't give a damn.

They installed Nouri for a second term (after he lost the 2010 election) and they looked the other way.

They never condemned anything.

They didn't even condemn the massacre in Hawija -- which was only a larger scale version of events that repeatedly took place.

That's why the Islamic State was able to take root in Iraq.

And until this is dealt with, there is no solution or moving forward in Iraq.

I guess the Iraqi government could kill off every Sunni in Iraq and maybe then they could 'resolve' the issue.

And possibly that's the 'plan'?

But the only way to have a peaceful solution in Iraq is to end the
persecution of the Sunnis and allow for a true partnership to take
place.

Does Haider al-Abadi grasp that?

There's no indication that he does.

Of today's speech, PRESS TV reports
he declared, "The political conflict among politicians and their impact
on the brave security forces permits acts of terrorism to occur."

His "political conflict" is that he's not being allowed to tear apart
his existing Cabinet -- one he had to present to Parliament and get
their okay to become prime minister in the second half of 2014 -- and
replaced them with people he wants.

His April list was shot down.

He's now attempting to push through a new list.

He paints them as "technocrats" but it's about ending the established quota system that guarantees representation of all Iraqis.

That's what he's at war with, that's what he's trying to dismantle and destroy.

Strikes in IraqRocket artillery and fighter and remotely piloted aircraft
conducted 17 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the
Iraqi government:

-- Near Baghdadi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL command-and-control node.

-- Near Albu Hayat, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL weapons cache.

-- Near Rutbah, four strikes
struck an ISIL tactical unit, an ISIL headquarters, an ISIL
vehicle-borne bomb facility and an ISIL staging facility.

-- Near Beiji, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL bunker.

-- Near Fallujah, a strike struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Habbaniyah, two strikes
struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting
position, an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL anti-air artillery piece.

-- Near Haditha, a strike destroyed an ISIL weapons cache.

-- Near Qayyarah, three strikes struck an ISIL headquarters and destroyed an ISIL tactical vehicle and an ISIL mortar system.

-- Near Tal Afar, two strikes destroyed an ISIL tunnel system and an ISIL road-roller.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic
events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a
single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a
single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle
is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons
against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for
example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or
impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not
report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number
of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual
munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in
counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a
strike.

The Iraq War continues. And one of the people who helped start it (and
kept it going) is running for the Democratic Party's presidential
nomination. Philip Weiss (MONDOWEISS) notes
War Hawk Hillary Clinton was discussed on MSNBC's HARDBALL when host
Chris Matthews spoke with NEW YORK TIMES journalist Mark Landler:

Matthews:
Her key decision politically which hurt her in the 2008 race was
supporting the authorization for going to war in Iraq. How did she turn
on that… How did she get to that decision. How has she reviewed it
since?

Landler: First of all, She’s acknowledged that was a mistake

Matthews: What’s that mean, though, what’s mistake mean?

Landler: OK, she’s acknoweldged that was a mistake
because she said she wasn’t given access to the full intelligence
dossier, right?

Matthews: That’s not a mistake.

Landler: And the point is she didn’t read the full
NIE that actually talked about whether Saddam had weapons of mass
destruction or not.

Matthews: Well did he have nuclear weapons? I’ve got
no evidence that ever have suggested we knew or thought he did. But
they sold it.

Landler: That’s right. She sort of hung it on her
being deceived by the administration when the argument is she probably
didn’t do adequate due diligence to figure out the truth.

Matthews: Why did she want to vote yes?

Landler: I think it was a combination of what I said
earlier, which is her own instincts, plus you have to also acknowledge,
New York senator, post-9/11, worried about her own–